”¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States” Exhibition Dress
Thesis Statement:
The foundation of this piece is inspired by my Mexican-American heritage. It was created for a national exhibition showcasing the culture and impacts of Mexican-Americans.
Images of my family members, specifically the matriarchs and those who served in the US Military, were placed along the hemline to honor Mexican-American ancestry. My mother is a second-generation immigrant and I wanted to create a piece of our family that she could bring to such a momentous event.
Additionally, I tried to use as many recycled materials as possible to reduce waste and as a symbolism of how immigrants have historically had to creatively use what was available.
The Process:
The dress skirt panels were de-constructed and used as pattern pieces for the new skirt (pictured right). The black knit top of the dress was transplanted onto the new skirt.
For the skirt body, I used purple shantung yardage that had been gifted to me. The yellow borders were a silk habotai that I dyed with Marigold extract since Marigolds are used to honor the dead in Mexican Culture. By framing the images with the Marigold dyed silk, it further honors my ancestors. The photographs were printed onto silk habotai using Bubble Jet Set 2000.
After deconstructing the skirt panels and pressing the seams, I used a photograph I had previously used in a project as a visual reference for spacing the photos of my relatives onto the hemline. Then, I sketched out the spacing onto one of the skirt panels (top right).
Next I washed and pressed the shantung in the washing machine and dryer. This achieved a 'sand-washed' effect, the hand was softer and the shantung had lost a little of its lustre. I washed the yardage because I wanted to pre-shrink it in case the dress was ever cleaned in the future. On a prior garment I had made for a UMW production, the lining fabric had shrunk more than the outer layers, leading to the jacket hem appearing to turn in on itself, I did not want a repeat of that happening.
I then ironed the habotai onto freezer paper and cut out pieces sized to go through a printer. Then, I took the measurements for the photos and put each individual photo scan into photoshop, where I edited the photos to conform to the measurements. This involved stretching and adding in blended backgrounds, resizing the photos, cropping out any distractions, blurring the backgrounds to increase the prominence of the subjects and make the photos look like portraits, etc. I grouped the photos into sets of 4 and ran each set through the printer, let it rest, and then rinsed with synthropal to remove any fugitive dye.
I dyed the remaining habotai using the Marigold extract and Alum as a binding agent, rinsed with synthropal, and put in the washer/dryer to pre-shrink the yardage. I used too little of the Marigold dye because after washing the silk was a pastel yellow instead of a deep marigold color that I was aiming for. While this color still worked will with the purple, I learned that I should always use scraps to test new dye techniques.
I pressed, cut, and pieced together the bias tape for the photos. Then, I pressed a 1/4" hem onto each side of the bias tape and used a large book as a clapper/weight to set the hems.
I pieced the skirt together with a 5/8" SA and French seams to keep a clean, unraveled edge, I used Guttermann black silk thread in my machine to make sure that the thread didn't stand out on top of the silk like I'd seen cotton threads do. I spaced out box pleats around the waist to gather the skirt in, then attached a lace hem to keep the hem from telegraphing to the front of the dress. I used the catch stitch to secure the lace hem to the dress without showing to the front.
Based on my previous layout for the dress, I chalk-marked the bottom edge of the first band of yellow silk, pinned it all around and used yellow Guttermann silk thread to slip stitch the bias tape onto the skirt body. I marked the top band and repeated the procedure. This by far took the longest amount of time, in pinning, re-measuring, pinning and repeating, and then hand sewing both bands onto the skirt I'd estimate it took me around 30 hours, but I couldn't figure out another way to attach the bands that would give me the result I required.
I spaced and pinned the photos, and slip stitched them onto the skirt. My favorite feature(s) of the dress is that it has pockets, and that when falling naturally, three of the matriarchs my mother looked up to appear in a line, and when spread open (right), two of her relatives who served in the US military are shown in between. I feel like this successfully represented our ancestors, as well as their contribution and service to the United States. I am very proud of this dress.